Bi-Amp Question with separates

Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
And what if any difference did you notice in the performance of your Ultra Towers?
Not much honestly. Nothing jumped out at me. I had a nice sense of placebo satisfaction from using my extra amp channels tho... :p
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Not looking for louder......to me it's reference level right now as it hooked up. I agree louder is not better, just looking for some more headroom and possibly a tad more dynamics. I sure would not be expecting a night and day difference. It all started with an extra pair of SVS Ultra Speaker Cables being sent to me and before I send them back I got to thinking.....hmmmmm? In the end I may try it but I may be overthinking things a bit.....it's a disease!

I got two separate responses from SVS....one told me their adapter that I linked above would work well in this attempt and another told me basically "don't bother, the Monolith will drive them just fine as it is set up".

I appreciate all the feedback and any others that want to offer it. Always good to bounce things off other audioholics to find out if I'm sane, rational or starting to lose it!
You will not get significantly more headroom. If you double amp power you only gain 3 db. With passive bi-amping you will not gain anything like that much. This is because, the low pass section takes most of the power, and the high pass comparatively little. The power divide of music is in the neighborhood of 400 Hz. However that is where the baffle step compensation sets in, which requires a 6 db increase below that point. So to all things being equal, which they may or may not be, you need three times the amp power below 400 Hz, compared to above 400 Hz. So if you already have a powerful amp, you have to massively increase the available power. To get 10 db of headroom to keep things really relaxed then you need 10 times the power. So that is why in my main theater I use 3,200 watts all channels driven. That gives me10 db of headroom over a 320 watt system.

This is an area where things are much more complex than you think. Fortunately with reasonably sensitive speakers 40 or 50 watts per channel gives most a satisfying home experience. However if you want the full concert hall experience, with the full dynamic range, and have things stay totally smooth and effortless, then you really have your work cut out and then some. To put it bluntly, it requires a significant degree of insanity.
 
Ledformyhead

Ledformyhead

Junior Audioholic
You will not get significantly more headroom. If you double amp power you only gain 3 db. With passive bi-amping you will not gain anything like that much. This is because, the low pass section takes most of the power, and the high pass comparatively little. The power divide of music is in the neighborhood of 400 Hz. However that is where the baffle step compensation sets in, which requires a 6 db increase below that point. So to all things being equal, which they may or may not be, you need three times the amp power below 400 Hz, compared to above 400 Hz. So if you already have a powerful amp, you have to massively increase the available power. To get 10 db of headroom to keep things really relaxed then you need 10 times the power. So that is why in my main theater I use 3,200 watts all channels driven. That gives me10 db of headroom over a 320 watt system.

This is an area where things are much more complex than you think. Fortunately with reasonably sensitive speakers 40 or 50 watts per channel gives most a satisfying home experience. However if you want the full concert hall experience, with the full dynamic range, and have things stay totally smooth and effortless, then you really have your work cut out and then some. To put it bluntly, it requires a significant degree of insanity.

Well as you may know the SVS Ultra Towers are 88db sensitivity and a 3 1/2 way 5 driver cabinet with dual 8" woofers. So they aren't extremely efficient.....and that is the main reason why I'm even considering this. If I had some 90-98db 2 or 3 way speakers here I wouldn't even be considering it.

Thanks for the input!
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Well as you may know the SVS Ultra Towers are 88db sensitivity and a 3 1/2 way 5 driver cabinet with dual 8" woofers. So they aren't extremely efficient.....and that is the main reason why I'm even considering this. If I had some 90-98db 2 or 3 way speakers here I wouldn't even be considering it.

Thanks for the input!
To be quite honest, 88dB is considered to be fairly adequate in the sensitivity category. By the time you hit 92dB sensitivity you are in high Sensitivity land.
 
Ledformyhead

Ledformyhead

Junior Audioholic
To be quite honest, 88dB is considered to be fairly adequate in the sensitivity category. By the time you hit 92dB sensitivity you are in high Sensitivity land.

I think their 88db rating may be a tad generous but it's in the ballpark. They also list it as an 8 ohm speaker when it spends a lot of it's listening life in the 6 ohm range and easily dips down to 4 ohms at times. Even SVS admits on the shipping box of all places that it can dip down to 3 ohms. Blah, blah, blah......all in all we shall see. I knew going into this that the thought process on this is far and away that it's a waste of time in most all cases.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Well if really worried get a much more powerful amp than what you have rather than screw around with passive bi-amping...
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
I'm not gonna get into all that.
Others have stated some realistic truths... and if you want to Bi-amp, there's no reason not to if you've got the extra amps channels available. Just remember to remove the jumpers and shut everything down before you plug in; no harm should come.
 
Ledformyhead

Ledformyhead

Junior Audioholic
Well if really worried get a much more powerful amp than what you have rather than screw around with passive bi-amping...
Well I just purchased the Monolith within the last year so I won't be doing that. And I do like the amp!
 
Ledformyhead

Ledformyhead

Junior Audioholic
To be quite honest, 88dB is considered to be fairly adequate in the sensitivity category. By the time you hit 92dB sensitivity you are in high Sensitivity land.
And it's not all about the Ultra Towers.....part of this is yes, utilizing my extra channels that I'm currently not using and also taking some strain off of the main channels by bi-amping, which I'm sure someone will tell me isn't going to be the case.

Eventually when we move into a bigger space I'll be bringing back my old Dahlquist M-909 towers (a damn fine tower for what it's worth) to add into the system and go 7.1.2 instead of the current 5.1.2 I'm set up with. Just no room to go with more floor standers right now.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Well as you may know the SVS Ultra Towers are 88db sensitivity and a 3 1/2 way 5 driver cabinet with dual 8" woofers. So they aren't extremely efficient.....and that is the main reason why I'm even considering this. If I had some 90-98db 2 or 3 way speakers here I wouldn't even be considering it.

Thanks for the input!
That is in the reasonably sensitive bracket, which I rate as 87 to 89 db. I would not waste time with passive bi-amping.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Well I just purchased the Monolith within the last year so I won't be doing that. And I do like the amp!
Just regular use of that amp will be just fine....no need for the passive bi-amping. Enjoy the content, stop worrying about the amp.
 
Ledformyhead

Ledformyhead

Junior Audioholic
Just regular use of that amp will be just fine....no need for the passive bi-amping. Enjoy the content, stop worrying about the amp.
Well the damn thing weighs nearly 100 lbs so it should be able to handle itself and anything I throw at it!
 

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